As Business Interests Grow, Graeme McDowell Leaves Horizon To Manage Own Affairs

Golfer Graeme McDowell is "set to leave Horizon Sports Management to manage his own affairs," but he insists he is "leaving on good terms when his contract ends" on Dec. 31, according to Brian Keogh of the IRISH TIMES. McDowell joined Horizon from Chubby Chandler’s Int'l Sports Management in December '07, but his business interests "have grown in recent years -- he has a restaurant, a stake in the Game Golf tracking technology and a clothing brand with Kartel -- and he now has his own personal assistant and financial advisors but no plans to move to another management company." The news will be "seen as a blow" to HSM, which lost Rory McIlroy, Michael Hoey and Gareth Maybin in recent years and now manages only Shane Lowry and Ross Fisher. Sources said that McDowell has been "ruminating his decision 'for months' and that while he was unhappy with the way the McIlroy camp has gone about its business, his decision has no direct connection to the High Court battle between the world No 1 and the boutique agency set up by Conor Ridge" (IRISH TIMES, 8/25). In Ireland, Karl MacGinty writes McDowell "played a central part in Horizon's development into a significant player in the global golf arena," but views this as the "right time to take charge of all his own affairs on and off the golf course." McDowell said, "I am at a stage in my life where it feels right to move on to the next phase of my career -- both in golf and business" (IRISH INDEPENDENT, 8/25).